Clinton Supporter Stirs Up a Rival

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

Published: September 21, 2007

Rudolph W. Giuliani's marital history seeped into the presidential campaign yesterday, a day after a supporter of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton drew attention to Mr. Giuliani's personal life in a television interview in New York.

Mrs. Clinton passed up the chance yesterday to distance herself from comments made Wednesday by Tom Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa and an official in her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Mr. Vilsack was in New York to be master of ceremonies at a Clinton fund-raiser, an event that drew notice for Mrs. Clinton's own remarks, in which she referred to Vice President Dick Cheney as Darth Vader.

Mr. Vilsack told New York 1, the cable news channel, that voters in the rest of the country would come to know details about Mr. Giuliani's life that people in New York have known for years.

Mr. Giuliani, a Republican presidential candidate, is a former New York mayor.

Pressed for details, Mr. Vilsack replied: ''I can't even get into the number of marriages and the fact that his children -- the relationship he has with his children -- and what kind of circumstance New York was in before September the 11th and whether or not he could have even been re-elected as mayor prior to September the 11th.''

The Giuliani campaign swiftly linked the remarks to Mrs. Clinton. ''It's not surprising the Clinton campaign is going negative and personal so early,'' a statement from the Giuliani camp said.

The Clinton campaign had no comment on whether it had authorized Mr. Vilsack's remarks. Mrs. Clinton, first queried about the matter by Radio Iowa, said of Mr. Vilsack, ''I think he's more than capable of speaking for himself.''